The See Yup (also spelled Sze Yap) Society was established by Chinese who came to Australia from the See Yup area. “See 四” meaning four, and “Yup 邑” meaning district, was the name given to the area covered by the four districts of Sunwui 新會, Toisan 台山, Hoiping 開平 and Yanping 恩平in Southern Kwangtung 廣東) Province. The See Yup Society in Victoria In 1868, when the Reverend William Young published his Report on the Condition of the Chinese Population in Victoria, he stated, “The Chinese population of this colony [Victoria] is composed of the Su-Yap [See Yup], Sam-Yap, Heang-San and Amoy Chinese. The first named are by far the most numerous…”[1] A See Yup Society was established in Victoria as early as 1854. The Rev. William Young translated the “Rules of a Chinese Society on Ballarat” for his Report.[2] It begins with the statement, “The Members of this Society all belong to the Su-Yap [sic] clan.” The stated purpose for...Read More
By Juanita Kwok The Heung Yup Long Du Tong Sen Tong (‘same place society’ for people from Long Du) was the native-place association for people from Long Du, a small district within the County of Heung Yup (renamed Chungshan in the 1920s) in the Pearl River Delta region of China. The Sydney Heung Yup Long Du Tong Sen Tong was established circa 1905 and lasted until the 1930s. A precursor to the Long Du Society was the Yeung-wo Company, formed in the early 1860s by people from the districts of Tsang Shing, Tung Koon and Heung Yup. Long Du associations were also formed in other countries that people from Long Du migrated for work, such as Hawaii, where the Long Doo Chung Shing Tong was founded in 1892 and in San Francisco where the Long Du Association was a member society of the Yeung-wo Association.[1] Our Chinese Past Vice President Kira Brown has in her family collection a Long Du...Read More
The Goon Yee Tong is an old Chinese Australian district association of Chinese from the district of Tung Koon. The Goon Yee Tong association, established by Tung Koon natives to organise bone repatriation and engage in charitable endeavours, survives to this day.[1] Early history of the Goon Yee Tong The Goon Yee Tong was established in the early gold-rush era. Sydney-based Chinese merchant Way Kee (c.1824-1892), who is reported to have been treasurer of the Goon Yee Tong from 1857 to 1889, had commenced business in the Rocks by 1871.[2] He conducted business with stores on the NSW goldfields and is named as a creditor in the 1872 insolvency of Sofala storekeeper, John Ah Sue.[3] Way Key [sic] signature in Jahun Ah Sue insolvency file. By 1876, Way Kee leased 164-168 Lower George Street, through which he sold imported Chinese goods through country stores in NSW, including at Bourke, Bega and Hillston and in Stanthorpe in Queensland. Jane Lydon writes:...Read More
By Juanita Kwok The Quong Sin Tong is an old Chinese Australian society about which little is known. The Society is believed to have erected the Quong Sing Tong monument in Rookwood Cemetery in 1877, commemorating Chinese buried in the Old Chinese Cemetery in Rookwood. According to Terri McCormack, who wrote the Conservation Management Plan for the Quong Sing Tong monument: “The elaborate style of the monument, with its moat, bridges and wrought iron railings indicates that it was quite costly. A society able to build such a structure either consisted of wealthy members or had been in existence long enough to accrue a considerable amount of money through subscriptions.”[1] Mc Cormack wrote: “In August 1876, some of Sydney’s prominent Chinese citizens presented a petition to the Minister for Lands requesting that ‘a separate portion of land be set apart for the interment of their dead’… It is unfortunate that the files relating to the matter are not extant. The names on...Read More
By Juanita Kwok Three buildings which are highly significant to the history of Sydney’s Chinatown have been newly heritage listed on the City of Sydney Council’s Local Environment Plan: 1) Goon Yee Tong, Loong Yee Tong and Loon Fook Tong buildings, 50-54 Dixon Street, Haymarket 2) Former Municipal Stores, 90-100 Hay Street, Haymarket 3) Kuo Min Tang building, moveable heritage and archival collection, 75-77 Ultimo Road, Haymarket In late 2023, Hector Abrahams Architects (HAA) were engaged by the City of Sydney to investigate the history and potential significance of the three buildings in Haymarket. HAA worked in co-authorship with Our Chinese Past President, historian Dr Juanita Kwok, who was engaged to conduct research and provide contextual histories of the buildings and advise on their significance and management. Following the development of the historical research reports, HAA was engaged to undertake a heritage assessment of all three sites and recommended that all three sites be heritage listed. On 15 December 2025,...Read More
By Juanita Kwok 7 December 2025 The first Chinese men to arrive in Queensland did not come as gold seekers but as indentured pastoral labourers brought to work on the pastoral frontiers from the late 1840s to early 1850s. Margaret Slocomb, historian of the Chinese indentured labourers in Queensland, asserts that “some of the Burnett and Wide Bay Chinese were almost certainly members of the Heaven and Earth Society (tiandihui) known commonly as the Sheathed Sword or Small Sword Society”.[1] Gold discoveries brought Chinese to the Queensland goldfields, including Bouldercombe, Ravenswood, Charters Towers and the Palmer River, firstly from the southern goldfields and then direct from China. In 1874, gold production in Queensland outstripped the other colonies for the first time.[2] Source: Illustrated Australian news, [Melbourne], July 2 1877. According to Noreen Kirkman, historian of the Palmer River, in January 1875, steamships began bringing Chinese from Kwangtung Province and South China ports and by January 1876, the Hopkee Company had...Read More
By Juanita Kwok 18 November 2025 After landing taxes were introduced in Victoria in 1855 and South Australia in 1856 to deter Chinese arrivals, gold seekers from the Pearl River Delta area began landing in Sydney and making their way to the New South Wales goldfields. There were already small numbers of Amoy men on the goldfields.[1] In 1867, clear reference was made to the existence of Chinese Freemasons in Braidwood on the Southern Goldfields of New South Wales. The Braidwood Dispatch reported “members of the craft muster in great force in the Braidwood district” and that there were no less than 400 Chinese members present at an initiation held at Jembaicumbene, where English gentlemen along with fifty Chinese men, were initiated into the Lodge. The report differentiated the Chinese Lodge from European Freemasonry, which it said, was also well-established on the goldfields.[2] The Yee Hing were also active on the Western Goldfields of New South Wales. John Fitzgerald argued...Read More
By Juanita Kwok, 13 November 2025 This Chinese Masonic Badge belonged to Charles Yow Senior (b. China 1862, d. Bathurst 1927). Charles Yow Sr was a member of the Chinese Masonic Lodge in Bathurst. The front of the medal has the Chinese character for “award”. The character on the back means “company” or “society” and is the same term for society used in the name of the Yee Hing Society [an earlier name for the Chinese Masonic Society].[1] Chinese Masonic Badge that belonged to Charles Yow Senior. Photos by Juanita Kwok Charles Yow Senior Charles Yow Senior came out from China when he was 14 and married Carcoar-born Mary Mook San in 1907.[2] Their first child Charles was Charles Yow Junior (Chinese name Loong Ah Yow, b. 1908 Wallerawang, d. 1985 Bathurst). The Yows had a market garden at White Rock before moving to Brewongle and then Morrisset Street, Bathurst. Charles Yow Senior died in Bathurst in 1927 and is...Read More
By Juanita Kwok, November 2025 In 1854, ships from Hong Kong bearing Chinese men from the Pearl River Delta area of southern China began landing at Port Phillip, from where the gold seekers made their way to the Victorian goldfields. Although the goldrushes had begun in NSW in May 1851, it was to the richer Victorian fields that the Cantonese gold seekers initially flocked. As Chinese established settlements on goldfields, they erected temples, club-houses, clan-halls and masonic halls, often referred to under the common rubric of “joss houses”. Paul Macgregor’s research on Chinese joss houses counted over fifty in Victoria alone.[1] An 1856 report on the Chinese in Bendigo quite clearly differentiated between a Masonic Hall and joss houses: “The faction known as the four districts, to whom belongs the joss-house in Long Gully, have also established a species of free-masonry among themselves and erected a Masonic Hall at the 1st White Hill encampment.”[2] In 1859, Anglo-Chinese linguist James McCulloch...Read More
Juanita Kwok 23 October 2025 The Hung League/Yee Hing is believed to have originated in Zhangzhou in Fujian Province, China in 1761, from where it spread rapidly through Fujian and Guangdong provinces.[1] Established in opposition to Manchu rule, the slogan of the League was “Overthrow the Qing and restore the Ming”. Outlawed in China, the League became active amongst overseas Chinese emigrants. The Hung League was a brotherhood sworn to secrecy for good reason. As historian C.F. Yong pointed out, the activities of Yee Hing members were highly secret for fear of punishment on their return to China.[2] Consequently sources of information on the Chinese Masons are limited. Evidence of their activities in Australia prior to 1894 relies mainly on the local English language press, as Chinese newspapers were not published regularly in Australia before then. Reports and editorials on Chinese people in the Australian newspapers were more often than not, ignorant and or racist. Besides newspaper reports, however, historical...Read More
